The Los Angeles Lakers are playing the Philadelphia 76ers tonight, however, LeBron James will sadly be out due to left knee soreness he woke up with. However, that doesn’t mean the entire night for LeBron comes with no good news, as he has been selected to his 18th All-Star Game appearance right before tip-off. The results were announced by TNT’s Inside the NBA. LeBron James is now tied with Kobe Bryant for the second-most All-Star Game appearances all-time. He will just need one more to tie Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the all-time leader at 19.
Making his 18th #NBAAllStar appearance and serving as a team captain for the 5th year in a row… LeBron James of the @Lakers.
Drafted as the 1st pick in 2003 out of Akron, Ohio, @KingJames is averaging 29.1 PPG, 7.7 RPG and 6.3 APG for the Lakers this season. pic.twitter.com/dFW2mv6y8z
— #NBAAllStar (@NBAAllStar) January 28, 2022
2022 West All-Star starters:
Stephen Curry
Ja Morant
LeBron James
Nikola Jokic
Andrew Wiggins— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 28, 2022
LeBron James will also serve as a team captain for the 5th straight time. He’s been a team captain every time since the NBA transitioned from the old West/East format. He earned the captain role from getting the most votes in the Western Conference, coming back against Stephen Curry who originally had the most votes in the West in the first round of voting being announced. Kevin Durant will be the other captain drafting against LeBron after getting the most votes in the Eastern Conference.
LeBron, as he is basically every season, finds his name somewhat among the MVP conversation with 29.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game this season. The 29.1 points per game currently has him at second in the entire NBA, behind Kevin Durant (29.3) and right in front of Joel Embiid (29.0). Sadly, the Lakers’ record this season will continue to hurt his odds at winning a fifth MVP trophy as players like Durant and Embiid have their teams comfortable above .500.
Only the captains and starters were announced tonight, so we’ll have to see if Anthony Davis is selected. It’s extremely doubtful, as Davis has only played in 28 games this season at the time of this post. It would be the first time Davis has missed out on a selection. He was even selected last season despite missing a considerable amount of time late in the season.
